1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a boat including a boat propulsion system having an engine arranged to provide a propulsive force to the boat, a remote control device arranged to control the boat propulsion system, and an information display device arranged to display information on the boat propulsion system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional boat of this type is described in JP-A-2005-156392. In this boat, an engine ECU for controlling an outboard motor and an information display device (a gauge) for displaying information such as a state of an engine are connected by a cable. Further, information such as the engine rotational speed is transmitted from the engine ECU to be displayed on the gauge.
Specifically, the engine ECU and the gauge transmit and receive an address application at the same time with a system start. After this, communication is started. When a request is made by the gauge, the engine ECU transmits information to the gauge in response to the request, and predefined information (engine rotational speed and the like) is displayed by the gauge.
On the other hand, as another boat of this type, there is a boat described in JP-A-2005-297785.
JP-A-2005-297785 discloses a remote control operation device having a remote control shift lever for performing remote control of forward drive, neutral, and rearward drive; a boat propulsion system having a shift change device for performing shift changes of forward drive, neutral, and rearward drive and a shift actuator for actuating the shift change device; and a control device by which the remote control shift lever is operated in a shift area within a predetermined range from a neutral position and which controls an operation of the shift actuator based on an amount of operation of a remote control shift lever. The control device performs a control operation so as to differentiate an amount of operation of the actuator in relation to an amount of operation of the remote control shift lever within the shift area.
However, when a remote control ECU of a remote control operation device is interposed between a gauge and an engine ECU of a boat propulsion system, reliability is required between the engine ECU and the remote control ECU because it is necessary to exchange information on engine control, while such high reliability is not required between the gauge and the remote control ECU because it is only necessary to exchange information such as engine rotational speed. Accordingly, different transfer systems are used for an information transfer system between the engine ECU and the remote control ECU and an information transfer system between the gauge and the remote control ECU.
Consequently, authentication is performed between the remote control ECU and the engine ECU at the same time as a system start. During the authentication, an initial value (a default value) is transmitted between the remote control ECU and the engine ECU. During the authentication, communication between the gauge and the remote control ECU is performed at the same time as the system start, and a request is made to the remote control ECU by the gauge.
The remote control ECU transmits information to the gauge in response to the request. However, because the authentication is not completed, data transmitted at this time is the default value (an invalid value not usable for control). As a result, the default value is transmitted as engine information from the remote control ECU in response to the request from the gauge.
As described above, accurate information on the boat propulsion system may not be transmitted in response to the request from the gauge during initialization at the system start.